Category: Software and apps
Yesterday, for a special treat, I used the M6 Toll road. It’s just a couple of miles from my house and takes around 20 minutes off my journey but I, along with many, many, many other people, simply don’t use it due to the insane cost. At £5.50 …
Welcome to the first in a series of articles celebrating apps which are an example to others on how things should be done. I’m probably preaching to the converted, but I wanted to talk about the BBC iPlayer Radio app. It’s available for iPhone,, Android and Kindle. For …
Oh, you wish there was just one true cross-platform messaging app, don’t you? Oh hang on there is, and it’s called SMS. SMS has been truly cross-platfrom and also operating-sysem neutral for the past, I don’t know, 30 years. Yet no one seems to have grown the service, apart …
Are you an “OK Google” superuser? To be honest, I’m not. I keep forgetting that it’s there, but today Google has announced an update to the Google Maps app which I think that I will use and be an extremely useful addition. “OK Google” and voice commands …
Google has recently announced a new app that helps you sort all your travel plans. It’s a free app, and available both on Android & iOS. What with it being a travel app and all, it comes with an offline mode, allowing you to download all the info you …
Allo yes, this post may have the worst title but I couldn’t help it. Back at the Google I/O Developers Conference in May, they announced two new applications, Duo and Allo. The Duo app was released about a month ago, which is the simple video chatting application if you’ll recall, and …
Well, they took their time, but it’s happened – Android Pay now works for NatWest customers. We heard reports from a couple of our readers that they received an email from NatWest to announce that Android users can finally use Google Pay at tills and checkouts across the …
…or why I’m finally all-in on a paid Evernote subscription (at least for this year). It has taken just over five years to convince me, and within this time I have quit a long-term job and joined, left, then re-joined the CoolSmartPhone team. Also, for the last 5 …
I won’t beat around the bush. If you’re doing anything that you’d like to be kept a bit secret from your ISP then you need a VPN. Whether it be streaming, torrents or something in-between, online privacy is something you need to be looking at. However, it’s always …
Since Facebook’s huge purchase of the WhatsApp platform in 2014 and getting rid of the 99p annual fee, they’ve introduced a voice call facility, a desktop application and end-to-end encryption since. However, they never capitalised on any new revenue streams. Well, as you saw yesterday, Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced upcoming …
Personally I thought that the buzz surrounding this have would’ve died down, but it shows no signs of abating. People at the park, in the queue at the local bus stop, walking to work and even at the pub. Yes the pub, they’re all doing it. Now, amongst …
Google have just announced that their new video calling app, Google Duo, will start a phased release globally as of today. Google Duo is a video calling app which the Mountain View headquartered company teased at their Google IO developer conference in May. Until now Google Duo still …
Yes? well, you are in luck! Scary Beasties have launched an application aimed at adults who are wanting to colour in everything from Daleks to Cybermen. Out now for Android devices and iOS devices. The application has 45 images ready to be coloured in regardless of your sense …
I’ve been an Android user since my first T-Mobile G1 way back in 2008, and as such watched and used Google Maps through its iterations and updates: the introduction of free navigation, the ability to download certain area’s for offline use, etc etc, with each iteration making improvements …
For the last few years, if you watched everything on demand using the BBC iPlayer rather than tuning in live, it meant you didn’t have to pay the age-old subscription – the TV Licence fee. The British government and the BBC have wanted to close this so-called “iPlayer …
We here at Coolsmartphone towers are big fans of Jide and their Remix OS. For those that have only just come across this, this is a desktop-friendly Android OS with windows and toolbars providing a full desktop experience. It is one of a number of Android x86 projects, …
You’ll definitely have heard of Mobile Bingo Sites and addictive games like Pokemon Go lately. It’s a simple idea though, and one which many of you will be a little confused by. Augmented Reality is at the heart of this particular app, and the game has a simple …
Today the BBC have launched a new app on both IOS and Android, the BBC+ app. Every day the BBC generates massive amounts of content, be it news, TV programmes or the radio shows, and to be honest all this fantastic content is scattered throughout the internet, and …
I write this from the shiny Coolsmartphone HQ which, as you know, is my kitchen. On Friday afternoon I got back from work to find that my son had downloaded Pokemon Go. He’d seem it on TV and got it. He’s a bit young and I didn’t want …
OK. It’s turned into a dream for the PR company this one. Everybody seems to be talking about it, even here in the UK where you can’t actually download the thing just yet. Pokémon has returned and the ’90s have come back too (Robot Wars was on TV …
Last week we told you about the fantastic Iron Maiden game, Legacy of the Beast. The wait is over! The game now be download from Google Play and Apple iTunes official from now (5th July, 4pm BST). James Hursthouse, CEO of Roadhouse Interactive comments, “As a lifelong Maiden fan, I …
Every year mobile gaming becomes more involved and sophisticated with new games, better ways to play them and even greater connectivity with friends through social media. And, as this march of progress continues, the technology to play the games on moves forward too. At the forefront of these …
For those lucky few who caught our live broadcast last week, you will know we have had a copy of Legacy of the Beast. This is a game dedicated to the British music legends, Iron Maiden. The game celebrates every single album by taking you through worlds based on …
There was a time, not too long ago, when I’d be pretty annoyed at using an emoji. My wife loves them, but when she sent me a text message my phone wouldn’t be able to understand it and I’d just get a stack of question marks where the …
A post on the Evernote site posted on Monday 28th June states that Evernote Basic, the free tier from Evernote, will be limited to only two devices. This accompanies a price change for the paid levels, with Evernote Plus now costing £29.99 per year and Evernote Premium £44.99 …
After scrapping the annual fee for WhatsApp, the application has gone from strength to strength. Most recently the Facebook-owned WhatsApp has launched desktop versions of the popular phone application for Windows and Macs. Last week on the WhatsApp blog, they announced that users were making 100 million calls …
Why is this a thing worth mentioning? There’s a camera app specifically for Motorola phones (called surprisingly enough, Motorola Camera). It largely depends on whether you have a Motorola phone or not. More precisely, whether you have, or intend to get, one of the 2016 crop of Motorola …
A journey for me to London usually falls into two categories. I either take a “cheap” train which takes a couple of hours, stops at places I’ve never heard of and has no on-board “booster” so the signal on your phone is totally pants. If, however, I pay …
The popular remote desktop app TeamViewer has apparently been hacked. However, TeamViewer claim the issue lies with its users reusing the same password across multiple sites which makes sense…. until reports started to surface users with 2FA were also affected. It appears hackers gained control of victims’ TeamViewer …
“System and Security Info” has risen to being of the one of the top paid-for applications in the iTunes charts since its release last week (14th May 2016) however in that time frame Apple got upset about the application and decided to ban it. The reason Apple got …
Podcasts have exploded in popularity since they first came onto the scene in the early 2000’s. The move to smartphones and busy lifestyles with commuting, has only increased this popularity to the extent that phones seem to have become the main medium for consuming them. In such an environment, a good …
SyncMate is a powerful sync tool that allows syncing data on Mac with Android devices (phones and tablets running Android 4 and newer). Free edition of SyncMate will sync contacts and calendars while Expert edition allows syncing images, videos, folders, music and lot’s more; with Expert edition you …
UK carrier O2 has announced they are going to exclusively carry the new LG Stylus 2, which is the first smartphone with DAB radio support*, meaning you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite radio stations without using your data allowance. The device is available right now on O2 …
See? This is what gets me about cloud storage. You can spend hours, days, months and years uploading your treasured memories to an online drive, only for the provider in question to shut up shop. You’re then left scrambling around trying to find a new provider, or buying …
As we all know, YouTube has been letting you watch and share 360 videos for a little over the year now. The search giant Google, which owns YouTube, is now going to start letting you live stream 360 videos, starting with California’s Coachella festival. In addition, it announced that videos …
Opera browser has become the first to offer a free and unlimited VPN. Currently this is just available via the developer desktop version (direct download) to start with but will probably roll out to the full version soon. Opera is a minnow in the PC browser market but is more …
Statistics can often be skewed to serve a particular purpose, but new data just released about the relative numbers of downloads and amount of money generated by the Google Play and Apple iOS app stores make for interesting reading. The most obvious points from the above graphs, which …
Whether it’s a small task at home or a big assignment at work, Wrike’s project management solution has mobile apps to help you plan, organize, and collaborate so work gets done efficiently no matter where you are. Wrike’s online project management software has more than one million users …
This awesome headline combined with creative gameplay makes growing weed something everyone can do, even if it is “just” a game! Now you can practice the cultivation and earning potential of your “empire” with Ganja Farmer, which is available for both iOS (over 17’s only) and Android (PEGI …
Milk VR, which has been knocking about for some time for the Gear VR headsets has now been published onto the Play Store for those who are able to download it. I say that because it only is available for a select few handsets. The likes of The …
